According to the most recent data from the World Health Organization, ten million people around the world were diagnosed with the cancer in 2000, and six million died from it. Moreover, statistics indicate that the cancer incidence rate is on the rise around the globe. In America, for example, projections suggest that forty percent of those alive today will be diagnosed with some form of cancer at some point in their lives. By 2010, that number will have climbed to fifty percent. Of all cancers, pancreatic cancer is the eleventh most common cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer death in both men and women.
Modern technology, such as that involving the use of hybridomas, has made available to researchers and clinicians sources of highly specific and potent monoclonal antibodies useful in general diagnostic and clinical procedures. For example, there are now therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer, such as HERCEPTIN® (trastuzumab, Genentech) for metastatic breast cancer and PANOREX® (endrecolomab, Centocor/GlaxoSmithKline) approved in Germany for the treatment of colorectal cancer.